Where can you get information on political campaign contributors?

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Quick Answer

Information detailing political campaign contributions is online at the Federal Election Commission, Open Secrets and Campaign Finance Information Center. For state and local elections, each state keeps data on a website or available in print upon request. State organizations vary in the board, department or commission that keeps the records.

The Federal Election Commission keeps data on individual candidates, political action committees, and political parties with candidates running in a federal election, including the presidency, congressional races and national political parties. Open Secrets provides search capabilities by donor and federal-level candidate along with analysis of top donors and popular candidates. The Campaign Finance Information Center lists donations for candidates from Federal Election Commission Filings and websites for state-level data.

States have individual methods for public distribution of political campaign contributions. For example, the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board website maintains the fundraising and expenditure reports for gubernatorial races, state district positions and county and city offices. The website for the Illinois State Board of Elections provides public contribution information by candidate name, office, address, political action committee and proposition number. The California Secretary of State keeps information for local and state elections, donations from lobbyists and federal contributions with candidate affiliation in California.